Managed IT Force Blog

There are a lot of different ways to manage your time for IT, the most common one being 70 percent of your time on maintenance and 30 percent on innovation and development. If you want your business to grow, you need to invert those numbers and do the exact opposite. There’s one simple way you can change up your approach, and it’s not nearly as complicated as you might think.

Do you know what one of the most frustrating budgetary issues you run into is? One I’ve heard about quite a bit is the rush to spend every allocated cent in the IT budget before these funds are redistributed to other departments.

While the instinct is understandable, we want to reinforce that you should never make IT purchases solely to meet a spending benchmark. Instead, all invested funds should be directed so that you see returns.

The holiday season can be a busy (and lucrative) time for businesses, but that’s only if your network can handle the increased traffic. A network that buckles under the weight of more traffic than usual can cost you in sales. How do you address this issue so you don’t miss opportunities to make money?

You can start with these five fixes.

Did you know that, in physics, regardless of how much time, sweat, and energy you put into pushing a boulder, if it doesn’t move, the “work done” is seen as zero? The same is true in business… at the end of the day, your investment in your organization and its people is only worthwhile if you see results.

So, you need to ask yourself: how much work are your team members actually getting done? Are they moving the boulder, or are they just trying a lot but not actually making any progress? Let’s examine what often leads to this kind of stagnant struggle and how you can fix it.

We’ve seen firsthand how the shift to remote work has revolutionized business operations. However, one area still causes friction for many business owners: the virtual meeting. A poorly executed remote meeting isn't just a time-waster; it can drain productivity and disengage your team, damaging your company culture. Today, we outline a few tips that show that with the right strategy and tools, your remote meetings can be even more effective and engaging than their in-person counterparts.

Now that AI has entered the mainstream, more businesses are implementing these tools into their daily operations. Tasks like drafting emails, brainstorming for a new project, or debugging code have all been made easier. Here’s the secret to making the most out of AI: you get out what you put in. What do we mean by this? Let’s find out.

The cut, copy, and paste commands are some of the most frequently used keyboard shortcuts in the modern office, but do you actually understand how they work? They make use of the clipboard, but not many people know what the clipboard is or how it functions. Today, we want to demystify the clipboard and break down how you can make better use of it on your Windows device.

Business leaders and decision makers have plenty to deal with… and that’s before factoring in all the problems and obstacles that pop up over the course of their normal operations, particularly when it comes to the technology their businesses rely on.

Naturally, a smart business owner would want their technology to be as reliable as possible, available without requiring conscious effort. As it happens, one of the modern options for IT support enables circumstances to be as close to this ideal as possible… but the other predominant option ultimately gives you more to worry about.

Business owners have a lot of duties and responsibilities, and while you can hire a lot of people to cover some of the more stressful ones, it might feel strange to outsource your company’s technology management. You know IT is important, so that’s why you feel like you have to do it yourself, or at least in-house, but in reality, you’re the last person who should be working with your technology—and we’ll explain why.

You should want your team to be ready and able to accomplish as much as possible. So, when a team member approaches you with a request for a better laptop or a dual-monitor setup and the wish to do more with their time, you should agree. However, there may be that little voice in the back of your head, whispering, “Was that a wise investment?”

It can be hard to balance the need for employee satisfaction with your budgetary restrictions, but it must be done. Let’s go over the considerations you need to make… as well as the pitfalls that must be avoided.

Has this ever happened to you?

It’s late, a long day of work behind you, but you’re finally home and able to relax. Just as you get comfortable, your phone dings. You glance at your phone. It’s a work email… and if you’re like most, you’ll be itching just to check it and get it over with. The problem is, each time you do so, you whittle away the line between work and the rest of your life. This “always on” impression our technology provides has contributed to a few significant issues. 

Let’s see if we can address these issues.

You’ve probably heard the adage, work smarter, not harder. It usually describes the use of technology to bring time-and-money-saving benefits to the table that human workers can’t produce on their own. As good as technology is at boosting productivity and efficiency, it only works if you are able to get your employees engaged. 

While the allure of shiny new gadgets and cutting-edge software is undeniable, the real magic happens when these investments directly translate into tangible productivity gains, transforming how we work and propelling businesses forward.

If you’re reading this on the day it's posted, it's Wednesday. How often have you had to rewrite the same messages, over and over, in your internal reporting and client interactions so far this week? Probably quite a bit, and certainly more than you’d prefer.

The trouble is, this is all wasteful. Not only does replicating this message over and over spend valuable time, but it also uses up mental energy… plus, simply copy-pasting can easily lead to errors and oversights. Fortunately, modern email platforms offer templates that can be used to generate consistent and quality messages. Let’s review how.

Productivity is one of the most common business goals today, with many doing everything they can to optimize it. In fact, today is officially World Productivity Day, highlighting the significant importance placed on this specific metric.

Despite this, productivity can often feel unattainable… regardless of how busy one is throughout the day. Let’s fix that and consider three habits that will greatly support your work and help make the most of your time.

As a business owner, you wear many hats. You're the CEO, the head of sales, the marketing guru, and often, the de facto IT department. It's understandable that with so much to do, dealing with a sluggish computer or a temperamental software program gets pushed to the bottom of the to-do list. A laissez-faire attitude towards your technology can have serious consequences, however. Today, we’ll go through why being lazy with your IT causes more harm than good.

Generally speaking, most people need to access the same websites repeatedly for their work purposes, including calendars, applications, and portals. Bookmarking these resources provides a simple way to quickly and easily access them on demand.

Let’s go over some practices that can help you take these handy utilities to the next level of usefulness. 

There are, plainly and simply, too many ways that a modern small or medium-sized business can experience an issue that puts their IT out of commission in one way or another. Each one can hit one of these businesses particularly hard in the wallet.

Let’s review some today and discuss how they can be resolved.

How often do you find yourself feeling the weight of your agenda putting pressure on you, stressing you out, and—counterproductively—distracting you from the task you’re currently working on? Believe it or not, one of the best ways to power through and stay on track is to step away and take a minute to get your stress back under control. 

If you feel like you never have enough time to work through your to-do list, you’re far from the only one. If you make small adjustments to the way you tackle everyday tasks and responsibilities, you might be able to change your productivity habits for the better. Today, we want to explore just that: how you can make the most of your workday with simple, easy tricks.

We’re sure your business has at least a couple of employees who spend part of their workday in a different location, but are you doing all you can to help them be as productive as possible? While remote work is beneficial in so many circumstances, there are a lot of caveats to it that must be considered. Today, we want to go over how you can mitigate risk and keep remote work from becoming a liability for your company.